You know how we were just discussing Origin and how it's not as good as Steam? Well, they just went and did this: You can now return digitally purchased and downloaded games on Origin (within 24 hours of launching it, or 7 days of purchasing, or 7 days after the release date if you pre-ordered. Whichever comes first. And it only applies to EA games.) So that's kind of a big deal.

I know it sounds minor, but even when you have small stuff like "it's good when character X does action Y", in a game like "The Last of Us", you now know that character is going to stick around at least until said character has done action Y. Get me? And mind you, this is the first time I've heard about that Ellie thing.

"Thomas Was Alone", by the way, is pretty darned neat. Very worth the minuscule price you'll pay for it. I played through it on the Vita (which it's perfectly suited for, by the way). It's another one of those games you really don't want to spoil, because the story is the most important part of the game. It's one of those cases where the gameplay isn't particularly taxing outside of a few brief brain-ticklers, but it mostly sits there to go along with and enhance the story.

The gameplay itself is pretty much a puzzle platformer, with shades of Lost Vikings. That's about all you need to know.

Also, it's one of those Cross-Buy games on the PS3/Vita, so you get both versions and can sync them up to the cloud, so you can start playing on the PS3 and continue on the Vita, or the other way around.

twentythoughts: The Red Dead Redemption thing is a much MUCH bigger "spoiler" than "you get to play as Ellie". Number 1: You already know Ellie is one of the two main characters, unless you haven't seen any promo material, haven't read a single article about the game and haven't seen the COVER of the game. I was hoping and expecting to play her in the game throughout. Why you play as her or for how long were not mentioned and they'd be the real spoilers.

Let me just get annoyed about the word Spoilers for a moment. If a story can't hold up to having a few surprises revealed beforehand, it's not a very good piece of storytelling. I PREFER to watch/ play/ read something not knowing in any way what I'm in for, but that's nigh impossible. The Matrix, The Prestige and Primer were some of the very few films I've been able to see in such a way, and in the case of Matrix and Prestige, I had seen the trailers but just didn't know what was going to happen because they were good at previewing the experience without telling me what was going to happen. Fight Club gets BETTER when you know the twist! Maybe even more so if you see it first not knowing. I have experienced many stories where the twist has been known to me, and I've been able to enjoy them anyway. Sixth Sense was boring once you knew, though... We need a new word for Spoilers is what I'm saying.

@Magnulus - with 'Gone Home' the story IS the game though. If you know it before you play it, there's no point in playing it at all. It's barely a 'game' in the traditional sense at all, what it is is a very interesting and affecting story told in an interactive way.

I managed to finish Waking Mars after a year of playing it, and wrote a Mood Pieces entry about it. A damn nice and atmospheric game, but something just baffled me about how badly they handled the most probable ending to the game. This actually ended up into a conversation with film people about games and endings, and how they so weirdly suck too often. My theory is that especially smaller devs just don't have a story/writing department and they lose focus to the whole by concentrating on the playability issues and making the game mechanics work.

Hey, speaking of spoilers, how about we stop diddling on those and get real - what are the best game endings you have run into? For me one of the great examples was the first Darkness:

I think the first Darkness game is a bit underrated in the story department, and it had one of those endings that left me staring at the credits and going "nu-uh they just didn't!" Shooting the final baddie which pushed the protagonist totally to the mercy of The Darkness and the small moment of respite with the girlfriend before the credits rolled in was an awesome way to finish the story. I just wish it hadn't given me the idea of reading the actual comic, which I consider... not very good.

Yeah, Waking Mars was really nice. I got into that headspace you describe - just trying to make a cavern grow, and then when you unlock a new area through biomass increase you're surprised. Great to be a spaceman who doesn't shoot his way through new lifeforms.